I am terrible at photography :(

[sabbath999]

I'm diving Santa Rosa NM, The Blue Hole, in a few weeks - always a real shooting challenge with the reduced light, overhang shadows, gray wall, sediment stirred up by the AOW classes. I'll post a new thread around March 16 with untouched vs Elements edited pics then; maybe you'd like to play with some of those that week?

BTW that's on my list of things to do. We often fly out to NM to go to the Roswell UFO Festival the forth of July. I plan to dive the hole next time I am out there.

My apologies to the OP for the thread hijack.

 

[DandyDon]

So far all I have shot below is a Canon A710IS with no strobe in a Canon housing. It's what I have.

Nice point & shoot. For my last Mexico trip I carried my DC500 and my Canon A540 with a Canon housing as backup camera. Now I have 2 - DC500s with little interest in upgrading, and a new Canon A2000-IS land camera (still learning about IS) so I need to Ebay the A540 & housing. I'm going to cry over the end price I'm sure as I paid full Canon price for the housing, but oh well.

I will post a few shots one of these days.

Hehe, no rush. I suspect you want to be proud of your work before you show it, and you'll learn faster than most I am sure. Your land shooting background will certainly help you.

I just got certified in September and have only dived with a camera on 4 dives (I wanted to get some buoyancy control going first, eh?)

No argument. I don't really suggest a camera to a diver until s/he has 25-100 dives, depending on the diver - but many start sooner, and you have the right attitude. I like the rest of your statements here, too...

I bought a dC800 Maxx kit a couple months ago (the drama of that purchase available on another thread) because it is small, fits in one case, and was $1200.

It is enough to get me going.

My answer is in two parts.

Part 1) I am not a good enough diver to spend $5k buying a case for my Nikon D300 and the proper strobes and ports and stuff. By the time I get good enough, the D300 will be obsolete. DSLR cameras have a shelflife around my place of about 18 or so months (my wife's D80 is going on eBay tomorrow to be replaced by a D90).

Part 2) I believe that as long as you own a camera that has a decent lens on it (i.e. one that is reasonably sharp) and that has adequate lights, you can take amazing and fantastic pictures. It is the photographer that takes excellent pictures, not the camera.

Is a DC500, DC600, DC800 or DC1000 ever going to be as fast, versitile, responsive and flexible as a Nikon D300 with a good set of pro lenses in a quality case with a bunch of ports? No, of course not.

However, the real challenge isn't whether the gear is the best money can buy... it is whether the person taking the picture is the best photographer he can be.

I enjoy taking zoo pictures (as you can see on my website), and I get a lot of REALLY strange looks as I am carrying my two cameras that I use around the zoo... one is a Nikon D300 with a $1600 70-200 VR lens on it, and the other one is a Kodak Easyshare Z712IS that I bought on sale from Dell for $99 with a coupon. Some of my very best shots have come from using the Kodak, because it was the proper tool for the job.

Photographers tend to be gear heads. I can honestly say I don't fall into that category. Give me a reasonably sharp lens and some good quality light, and I am happy.

Boy, I just have no appreciation for Kodak or Polaroid - a couple of companies riding out old & famous names, but looks like your Kodak well. Been looking at some of your zoo shots, and wow you have been to many. Next time I take the grandkids to one, I'm taking my 5 ft tripod; they're always embarrassed by me anyway. Or maybe my mini gorrilpod that I can grip to a fence? I like to get a close as possible on the shots, or zoom - as it seems you do at times. Then I'll crop out what I don't like in shop while still in the full res state around 4 Mb so if I crop down to 500 Kb - it can still work in the end after image resizing to around 200 Kb, sometimes.

BTW that's on my list of things to do. We often fly out to NM to go to the Roswell UFO Festival the forth of July. I plan to dive the hole next time I am out there.

It's interesting. Boring in some ways, unique & charming in some ways. There is also Lake Lea I think it is at Bottomless Lakes State Park at Roswell. The early cowboys named them that only because they don't run dry even in droughts, as I have been to the bottom. No need in getting your camera wet there. I'm sure some periods are somewhat clearer than others, but I couldn't see my dive light pointed into my mask from 2". Had to be 98% no viz!

My apologies to the OP for the thread hijack.

Is anyone else still reading this one...?

 

[DFW99]

Yes, I am still reading.

 

[DandyDon]

Yes, I am still reading.

Edit: Oops, wrong thread for that thot...

 

[mikerault]

I started with the Nikonos IV, then the Sea and Sea MotorMarine II, then the DC310 (SeaLife) with strobe and now have the Canon20D in an Ikelite Housing and dual strobes, multiple ports, etc. To tell you the truth I was getting more, clear, great shots from the DC310! I am not sure about the newer modles but on my DC310 you need to press halfway, wait for focus then take the shot and plan for the shutter lag. On the 310 you also had to set it for the underwater mode (wish I had that on the Canon 20D!).


Mike
Mike

 

[DandyDon]

Aren't all point & shoot digitals that way: Press halfway to focus, then the rest of the way for the shot? With the DC500 you can switch to Shark Mode, with is like Kids & Sports in other brands - focus once and it's set.

How about a Canon A540 with Canon Housing? O-ring like new, think I had it down 3 times, never deep.